Newsademic British English edition 260

18th February 2016 
N ew sadem ic.com
™
 - British English edition 
page 
3
N
o r th e r n
 
S
ea
 
R
oute
 
s t u d y
In recent years many people have 
predicted that more and more ships 
will use the Northern Sea Route 
(NSR). They argued that this Arctic 
Sea route would be a shortcut for 
vessels sailing between big seaports 
in China, Japan and South K o­
rea, and the largest ports in 
Northern Europe.
A business school 
in Denmark has 
just 
completed 
a study. It com­
pared 
the 
ad­
vantages 
and 
disadvantages of 
the NSR and the 
Suez Canal Route 
(SCR). This canal 
is in Egypt. It connects 
the Red Sea and the M edi­
terranean Sea. Nowadays, the Suez 
Canal is a very busy waterway. It 
was completed in 1869.
M ost shipping companies want to 
save money. The business school’s 
study claims that using the NSR still 
costs more than the SCR. This, the 
school says, is likely to be true for 
at least another 20 years. The NSR 
goes along Russia’s northern coast­
line. The Russian government has 
tried to encourage ship owners to use 
it. Yet, in recent years, the number of 
ships using the NSR has decreased.
Today, ships transport cargo in big 
metal boxes called containers. Using 
large cranes, these are easy to load 
and unload. Thousands o f container 
ships cross the world’s oceans every 
year. China is the w orld’s biggest 
exporter o f goods. Many container 
ships sail between its ports and the 
larger seaports in northern Europe.
The main container ports in 
China are: Hong Kong, Shanghai, 
Dalian, and Qingdao. Other busy
seaports in nearby countries include 
Yokohama, in Japan, and Pusan, in 
South Korea. Ships from all these 
places frequently sail to northern 
Europe. There, the main seaports 
are: Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, 
Hamburg, in Germany, Antwerp, in 
Belgium, and Felixstowe, in the UK.
The distance from China to 
northern Europe via the 
NSR is shorter than the 
SCR. The difference 
is at least 4,000 
kilometres (2,500 
miles). Ships us­
ing the NSR can 
reduce the time it 
takes to complete 
the journey by 12 
to 14 days. Large 
container ships’ en­
gines burn oil. There­
fore another advantage of 
the N SR is that shipping companies 
use less fuel. This reduces the trans­
port costs.
However, the NSR cannot be used 
throughout the year. Now, it is pos­
sible to make the voyage between 
July and November. For the remain­
der o f the year the route is usually 
blocked by ice. Temperatures in this